Being 24 I have less than 1 year left to get my Queen Scout and Duke of Edinburgh Awards. I don't want to let the oppurtunity pass so I'm working towards getting them.

In order to get my Queen Scout Award I have to complete the following:

• 5 Challenges
• Nights Away
• Two activities from an international, environmental and values list

These also count toward my DofE meaning I should have time to achieve both. I have until my 25th birthday (August 5th 2013) to get these completed and submit my paperwork. I'll be sure to post updates as things progress.

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Last Sunday I ran my first 10K. A group of us from Deer Digital (Angus, Jim, Becky, Scott G, Scott F and I) ran the Baker Hughes, in aid of Befriend a Child.

When I first agreed to run, I decided that I would train for about two months. It seemed like an excellent idea, as I'm sure I get far from the amount of exercise I need. A plethora of excuses followed as to why I couldn't go out for a run night after night. Too wet out, too dry out, too late, other things to do.

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When I was younger, creative writing was something I had quite a passion for, nothing professional of course, just lots of little stories. But as I got older and my interests in computers and the The Internet grew I spent less and less time writing, until I had stopped all together.

However, I've just read Victoria Harazim's vast back catalogue, she is a budding author and copy writer from Aberdeen; and she's given me that spark to start writing again.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to fit this in along with building websites, wanting to build an iPhone app, tinkering with my new Arduino board, practicing for the upcoming 10k run, Refresh Aberdeen, Network, Cubs, and Beavers, as well as anything else I've not thought of, but it'll be fun to try!

So watch this space, I might, one day, have a gripping and imaginative short story for you. In the meantime be sure to read Diamond Tears Victoria's story available for Amazon Kindle, it's not super long, and it's a cracking read.

So I spent a month without coffee. It was quite interesting.

The first week or two were spent in withdrawal. I was getting nasty headaches everyday at around 2 or 3pm. This was not helped by the bug I had at the time.

In about my third week I was feeling pretty happy with myself, I hadn't given into temptation and had that "just one cup". That said I did have a little bit of tiramisu, but with an Italian girlfriend what could I do!

I think it was about three weeks in that I realised I was getting a decent nights sleep. Nodding off shortly after my head hit the pillow, unlike the half an hour or more I would lie awake before that.

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So I've now spent a whole week without coffee. Well, I say without coffee; that's not entirely true. I have had a single cup of decaf instant, but I'm not counting that one.

Things have been a little challenging so far. The trickiest thing has been my "first thing in the morning autopilot coffee making". Catching myself just after putting the kettle on, and having to resort to a glass of squash, or water instead has been interesting to say the least.

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